Kidney: Dip in form hasn’t waned interest

His team is undoubtedly struggling and ticket sales for the November series are somewhat sluggish, but Declan Kidney was quick to find fault yesterday with the assumption there is a disconnect right now between his Ireland outfit and the general public.

“If the support wasn’t there for us then the disappointment in our results wouldn’t be as palpable,” said the national coach. “If it didn’t matter to people they wouldn’t worry about the results, but people are as concerned about the results as ever.

“When we won matches last year there was a lot of excitement and when we didn’t win there was a lot of upset about it so it is our job to get the team to play to the best of its ability because it can matter even more to people in these times because now this is who we are.”